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I know many of us are sort of worn out from the summer garden
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right now, and fall is just sort of trotting in really slowly in
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some spaces, but now is the time to be getting our garlic, our
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shallots, and even onions into the garden in some places.
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If you can give me one good hour in the garden this month, you
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can absolutely set yourself up for really big flavor next
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summer, plus a few bonuses along the way.
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So today on Just Grow Something, we're going to walk through
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planting garlic and shallots and some tips on where it's OK to
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even plant onion sets for a summer harvest.
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We'll talk about when to plant for your location, how to prep
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the bed, and details about planting, which onions and
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shallots make sense to plant now, troubleshooting, and will
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answer your most frequently asked questions about these
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crops. Let's dig in.
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Hey, I'm Karen and what started as a small backyard garden 20
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years ago turned into a lifelong passion for growing food.
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Now as a market farmer and horticulturist, I want to help
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you do the same. On this podcast, I am your
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friend in the garden teaching evidence based techniques to
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help you grow your favorites and build confidence in your own
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garden space. So grab your garden journal and
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a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
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Quick reminder, if you are not on my e-mail list, get on that
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list by going to justforsomethingpodcast.com/news.
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I send out an e-mail each Friday on one specific topic and I get
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the chance to get into some pretty good details about
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subjects that maybe don't warrant an entire episode to
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themselves. Or sometimes additional details
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about a topic that we covered on the show.
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But then, you know, maybe that part got cut in editing or
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something. It's also a really easy way for
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you to give me suggestions for topics or ask me questions
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directly by just replying to those emails.
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I read every reply that I get. So just
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growsomethingpodcast.com/news and I will leave a link to that
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in the show notes. So if you are completely new to
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growing any of these crops, I'm going to leave links to full
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crop specific episodes for garlic and onions, plus the very
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detailed episode on planting onions in the fall in the show
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description. There's a lot of good
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information in those episodes and they really are worth the
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listen. O this is honestly the time of
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year when I am just begging for the first frost to hit and
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please just take out all of my plants because I'm tired, right?
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Our last frost date, our last normal frost date is usually
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like October 20th. And so yeah, we're past that now
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and we still haven't had our first frost.
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And you know, looking at the 10 day forecast, it doesn't look
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like it's, you know, anywhere near frosting anytime soon.
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And so I am still picking, you know, tomatoes and Peppers and
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cutting celery and cucumbers. And I'm kind of over it.
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And so when we're tired like this, it might seem like, you
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know, getting out there and prepping a bed or two to be able
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to get these things like garlic and onions into the ground.
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It just sounds like a lot of effort.
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And maybe we're just not into it.
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But trust me when I say the effort is worth it is a really
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good quick win in the spring without really having to do much
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at all. OK.
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If you can dedicate 1 area where you can go through and you can
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do some cleanup and you can do some bed prep and get these
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crops in, you will absolutely be thankful for it in the spring.
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And it doesn't necessarily have to be like one entire bed.
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If you are trying to do more in terms of intercropping next
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season, then garlic and onions and shallots are things that are
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really good for tucking in along the ends of beds that will be
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planted to other mixed crops in the spring.
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These can also be tucked into the corners of like your raised
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planters. And so you're still having
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places where you can plant all of your other crops because you
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will know where these are. These will already be popping up
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in the spring before you're ready to plant anything else.
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So it's not like you're going to forget where they are.
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OK. And again, you can just do full
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beds of these if you want to or intermix them.
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There are loads and loads of options here for just getting
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these out into the garden. And that also includes doing
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some things in pots, if you can put them in a protected area or
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if you're not quite in such a cold zone.
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OK, so we're going to start with garlic because October is kind
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of prime time in a lot of the Northern Hemisphere for planting
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garlic. Now, some of these things, if
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you are in a colder zone, say maybe zone 4 or colder right
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now, you might have missed the window.
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Don't panic because you might still be able to do something
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with these. So long as your ground is not
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frozen by now, you very well may be beyond your first frost.
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And that's, that's OK. We just don't want the ground
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solidly frozen yet, OK? We want to get them in at the
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right time so that they get a chance to go ahead and, and
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root. But not all is not lost if if
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you think you've missed the window, OK, garlic should go
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into the ground in the fall because it needs vernalization.
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This is like a cold period. Otherwise those bulbs are not
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going to differentiate. You're not going to get those
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multiple cloves in the bulb. So it roughly needs like a month
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or two at temperatures between 32 and 50°F in order to be able
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to properly differentiate like that.
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So this chilling naturally happens if we planted in the
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fall. If you really are in an area
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where it has just gotten too late to do this, you can do a
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spring planting, but you're going to have to artificially
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chill those cloves first. So you will need to put them
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like in your refrigerator for a good 6 to 8 weeks prior to
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planting them out in the spring. They're still going to be
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smaller more than likely, but at least you'll get those
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differentiated bulbs instead of just like one giant clove, which
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if you've ever planted garlic in the spring and it didn't get
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that, that vernalization period, you know exactly what I'm
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talking about. You get like one giant clove of
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garlic and that's it. You don't get the individuals OK
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in terms of what type you should be planting.
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Hard neck garlic is really generally better for the colder
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climates and the bonus to this is that you get that edible
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scape in the late spring that you can cut off and you can use
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that before you even harvest the garlic.
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Soft neck tends to be better in milder climates.
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Softneck also tends to store longer.
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So if you're in an area like I am where we're zone 6B, we are
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practically like smack dab in the middle of the growing zones.
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I can actually plant both and do both very successfully.
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How they grow tends to be based on what our winter temperatures
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are like. So sometimes we have very, very
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mild winters and our soft neck does phenomenally well and the
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hard neck is just kind of so so. And then there are other years
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where we have a really, really harsh winter and the hard neck
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does phenomenally well and the soft neck just kind of does so.
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So here in recent years, I think the soft neck has really sort of
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won out just because number one, soft neck tends to be a larger
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head of garlic. So if you like a lot of cloves
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in your garlic, then soft neck is the way to go if you can get
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away with it in your climate. But we also do the hard neck too
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because it generally has a stronger flavor.
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So soft neck is going to store longer and it's also what you
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use to make braids in most instances.
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If you want to do a garlic braid, the soft neck is easier
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to work with and the hard neck, although it tends to be smaller,
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does tend to have a stronger flavor.
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So we just like to do both. Now do you need to order
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certified disease free garlic? Yes and no.
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OK. That is the recommendation.
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And if it's your first time ever growing garlic, then I would
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recommend yes. If you can do that, then by all
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means do it. It's going to give you a better
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level of initial success. You're not going to worry about
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bringing a disease into your garden that you don't already
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have. And you know that it has been
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cured properly in order to be able to, you know, sprout
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properly. You know it hasn't been sprayed
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with anything that would prevent it from sprouting.
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This is the only problem. Well, not the only problem.
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One of the problems with buying garlic in the grocery store and
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trying to grow it, often times it is sprayed with a hormone to
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keep it from sprouting and that obviously defeats the purpose if
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we want them to sprout. OK, you can do better if you're
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buying like certified organic bulbs in the grocery store.
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But if the price of like seed garlic sends you reeling because
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it is fairly expensive, I think this year the sources that I
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have seen, they've gone up to close to, you know, $28.00 for a
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pound of seed garlic, which is really, really high.
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And I get it. They're certified that, you
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know, they don't have a disease. And so, you know, it's a good
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way to start. But if you have a farmer close
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to you that you trust, if there is somebody at the farmers
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market that you shop with or you have ACSA through who grows
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things in organic matter and you know, they can tell you no,
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we've had no diseases. Yes, this is OK for you to
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plant. You likely can find seed garlic
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a lot less expensively if you just get them straight from your
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local farmer. So, but if you really want to
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make sure that you're getting off to your best start, then
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yes, certified disease free actual seed garlic is a really
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good idea. The classic rule of thumb
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basically for garlic is you want to plant it about three to six
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weeks before the ground freezes. Now it's like, oh, when is that
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going to be? Because you never really know,
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right? So just aim for when your soil
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temperatures are around 50°F and they're starting to drop.
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So in my colder regions, yeah, late September, maybe early
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October. If you haven't gotten your
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garlic in, you really probably want to do that.
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Once we get further South or we get into those warmer regions,
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we're talking October into November.
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I have planted our garlic and our onions as late as the third
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week in November and had no problem with them, you know,
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getting rooted in. The key here is that you really
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just want enough time for the roots to get established, but
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you don't want to plant so early that you're getting a ton of
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leafy top growth and then you have a hard freeze that kind of
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kills it off. The hard freezes obviously
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aren't going to damage these bulbs, but you don't want all
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that green at the top because that can actually, you know,
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improve your chances or increase your chances of there being some
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damage to the bulb underneath. The one thing to remember mostly
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about where you plant your garlic is that garlic does not
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like having its feet wet. OK, It doesn't want to be wet
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all the time. So we want a sunny bed because
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you are going to want the full sun.
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You want to make sure that it is well drained.
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This is why raised planters, raised beds are really, really
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great for this because you tend to have better drainage.
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If you can work in some finished compost for organic matter and
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even some fertility, that is really going to do well.
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For garlic, it really likes that organic matter.
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This is especially important if you have very heavy soil.
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You want to probably prioritize drainage over fertility if you
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have to choose between them, if you have really heavy soil,
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because you know the bulbs just are not going to get to the
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mature size or the right size if they're in really heavy, sort of
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mucky, wet soil, OK. You do want to make sure though
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that you are sort of rotating these crops away from other alum
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crops. So if you have a bed where you
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grew onions this year, you likely do not want to rotate in
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any garlic. Now, the one caveat to this is
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if you do a lot of heavy inter planting and intercropping like
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I do, then you're less likely to need to worry about rotating
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these crops because we're mixing all of those crops in and
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against each other, especially when they're in different, you
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know, plant families, then we're minimizing that disease risk.
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But if you have seen anything like any type of a white rod or
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basil rod or anything in any of your alliums before, then make
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sure that you're rotating those beds and absolutely start with
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clean seed stock. That's going to be your number
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one disease prevention step. So any allium diseases
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whatsoever, however, then yes, go for that certified seed
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garlic. OK, When you go to plant garlic,
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you're going to break those bulbs into their individual
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cloves right before planting. This is not something that you
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want to do ahead of time, and you want to try to keep as much
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of that papery wrapper intact on each one of those cloves.
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And sometimes it's just going to come off.
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That's just how it goes, especially if you have saved
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your own garlic to replant. That's another thing too.
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If you have grown garlic this year and you, you know, you want
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to go ahead and use your own, then that's fine.
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Just make sure that you are choosing the largest, healthiest
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cloves that you have and then save the smaller ones for use in
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your kitchen. OK, so just like when we're
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saving seeds and we we see the specimen that is the biggest and
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the best and the most beautiful, and that is the one that we save
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our seeds from because that's the genetics that we're trying
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to reproduce. Same thing goes with the garlic.
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If you're planting from very small bulbs or small cloves,
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then you're likely going to get small garlic.
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So pick the biggest and the best to go ahead and plant those.
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Make sure that you plant with the pointy end up.
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You want that basil plate where the the root system is to be
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facing down, and then you're going to cover each one of those
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cloves with about one to two inches of soil, which is going
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to put it roughly about two to three inches deep, depending on
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how you have prepped your bed. If you do it all in a furrow and
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you drop them down and then you cover up, then yeah, it's going
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to be about two to three inches. If you just poke holes, which is
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what I tend to do, and drop them in, then you're looking at about
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two inches or so down and then just patting it covered up.
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If you are in a very cold zone or you have soil that is really
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prone to frost heave, meaning as that freeze thaw cycle continues
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through the winter, it tends to push things up out of the
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ground, you might need to plant a little bit more deep.
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So 3 to 4 inches might actually be how you want to plant your
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garlic. OK.
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If you're in a milder zone, then yeah, shallower is fine.
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One to two inches is going to be OK.
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You just want to space them about four to six inches apart
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in rows that are about 8 to 12 inches apart.
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Or you can do it in a grid like the square foot gardening method
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or whatever and just do them in, in, in blocks that way.
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And that's what I tend to do. I just, I just space them, you
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know, four or six. Usually it's about 6 inches
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across because I have a dibbler that my husband built for me
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where each little, I don't know spacer I guess is 6 inches from
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each other and the whole thing is 4 feet wide if I remember
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correctly. So I just go 6 inches by 6
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inches all the way down. That's how I do my onions the
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same way. OK, so it's, it's just because
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I'm planting so many, it makes sense for me just to use the
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same dibbler and just to do the same thing over and over again.
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In terms of water, you just want to water once basically after
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you're planting it just to set up of the soil.
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And then you know, if you're in a very dry zone through the
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winter times, then you might need to water occasionally.
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You, you know it since it's not actively growing.
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Again, we don't want that to be super saturated all the time.
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We don't want their feet wet, but you don't want it to be bone
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dry either. So if either your your soil
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conditions are really dry, unusually for you for, for the
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winter, then you might want to once, once a month give it some
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water. Otherwise, generally speaking,
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you can just let you know the rainfall or the snowfall take
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care of it for you in the in the winter time.
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The one thing that you also do though, is you want to mulch.
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OK, This is your insurance policy whether especially if you
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were in a cold area, if you were in a very warm area, you may not
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necessarily need to mulch, but you know me and my feelings on
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mulch. This is going to protect your
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soil no matter what. So 3 or 4 inches of clean straw
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or shredded leaves over the bed immediately after planting is
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really going to help buffer those winter temperature swings.
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So it's going to prevent that sort of freeze thaw heating.
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It is also going to help to keep those spring weeds at Bay
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because we don't want that competition with our garlic when
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they're just starting to sprout in the springtime.
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OK. If you are in a very, very cold
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area, then you likely want to add as much as 6 inches of straw
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to help with keeping it insulated.
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But you are going to have to pull it back in the spring to
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help warm that soil up and just leave a thin layer to suppress
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those weeds, OK. You might see a little bit of
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growth on these depending on when you plant them, and a
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little bit of growth is fine. We don't want there to be like 4
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inches or 6 inches of growth before we start to see our
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really hard freezes. So if that does happen, that's
00:18:59
an indication for you the next time that maybe you want to wait
00:19:02
and plant a little bit later. Once we get to the spring and
00:19:07
you start seeing those shoots coming up and they're about 6 to
00:19:10
8 inches tall, that is when we saw a top dress or side dress
00:19:14
with some sort of a nitrogen source and then keep that
00:19:17
moisture sort of steady as the bulbs start to grow.
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And then we want to back off the water as we approach the
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harvest. So if you go back and listen to
00:19:25
that garlic episode, it's going to have a lot more information
00:19:28
about, you know, how what to do in the spring and how to harvest
00:19:31
and those types of things. We're just worried right now
00:19:33
about getting them in the ground and getting them off to a really
00:19:37
good start. Yeah, let's talk onions and
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shallots. And if you're wondering what the
00:19:42
difference is between onions and shallots, because I never really
00:19:46
had an idea before, basically onions grow individually,
00:19:52
whereas shallots grow in clusters similar to garlic.
00:19:58
Like, you know, you see the individual cloves of garlic,
00:20:01
that's sort of how shallots grow.
00:20:02
They kind of grow in these clumps.
00:20:05
Shallots generally have a milder, a little bit more
00:20:08
delicate flavor compared to onions, which tend to be a
00:20:11
little bit sharper. And then of course, because
00:20:13
they're growing in this little cluster, shallots have more of a
00:20:17
teardrop shape and they have a light purplish flesh where, you
00:20:22
know, onions are typically round or maybe kind of, you know,
00:20:25
squat. And they can obviously vary in
00:20:28
color. You got purple, red to yellow to
00:20:30
white, all of these things. OK, most people will go ahead
00:20:34
and plant shallots in the fall. The sets can be planted
00:20:40
basically after your first frost so that you get a late spring to
00:20:43
early summer harvest in a lot of climates.
00:20:46
These are ones where you want to space them about 3 to 6 inches
00:20:49
apart in rows that are 12 to 18 inches apart.
00:20:52
This is very, very similar to how we plant our garlic.
00:20:55
So again, I'm just going to do 6 by 6 for my entire grid.
00:20:59
But if you're planting these in little pockets of your raised
00:21:03
beds or in beds that are going to be mixed then later on down
00:21:06
the road, then just do them, you know, 3 to 6 inches apart in
00:21:09
whatever way that you can. The beautiful thing about all of
00:21:12
these things, the alums, they don't need any pollination.
00:21:14
They're not, you know, necessarily needing to be up
00:21:17
against others of their kind in order to be able to grow.
00:21:20
So you can pop them in wherever you want, just so long as
00:21:23
they're not too close together, you're not worried about how
00:21:26
them being too far apart. OK.
00:21:28
Now, if you do have really, really severe winters, then
00:21:33
shallots can be a little bit sensitive to this.
00:21:35
So if you are like zone 4 or colder, then you might consider
00:21:41
extra mulch or just waiting until the spring because you
00:21:45
absolutely can do this in the spring too.
00:21:47
I just like to get a jump on things.
00:21:50
It's one less thing that I have to worry about in the spring and
00:21:53
that is why I also do my onions. So for bulbing onions, the large
00:21:59
bulbing onions, most resources are going to recommend doing
00:22:03
them in the spring. But fall planting does have a
00:22:07
niche. OK, you can absolutely do some
00:22:10
bunching onions, right? They're all that.
00:22:12
There are like perennial and multiplier types.
00:22:16
That's the Egyptian walking onion is one of them.
00:22:20
But I do full blown onion sets in the fall and I basically
00:22:26
treat them the exact same way I do shallots or I do garlic.
00:22:30
And in some areas this is going to work for you.
00:22:33
In other areas, it's just going to give you like early green
00:22:37
onions. Or if they go a little bit
00:22:40
further, then you might get what we refer to as spring onions,
00:22:44
which means they're not really getting to that full size
00:22:46
maturity that you normally would harvest for a big summer bulb.
00:22:50
But these are still very good, like you still get like the
00:22:54
green top that you can use for green onions and you get an
00:22:58
immature onion that's maybe just not huge, but it's fresh and you
00:23:02
can use it right away. So we do both, right?
00:23:06
I will plant onion sets right now in the fall in the exact
00:23:09
same manner that I do the shallots and I do the the
00:23:14
garlic. So I'm trying to get them in,
00:23:18
you know, four to six weeks before the first really kind of
00:23:22
hard freeze. Usually this is around now in,
00:23:27
you know, warmer areas it it might be later.
00:23:30
Again, the same thing with the onions and the shallots is you
00:23:35
want the sets to establish some roots but you don't want them to
00:23:39
start to develop like any top growth before the winter.
00:23:42
I have planted again these sets as late as mid November in our
00:23:46
warmer years like what we're having now and had no problem.
00:23:50
It's really more about the soil temperature at this stage of the
00:23:53
game and less about the air temperatures and the daylight
00:23:56
hours. We just want them to get some
00:23:59
root growth on them before they go completely dormant.
00:24:03
And in my experience, you may see some top growth depending on
00:24:06
the air temperatures through the winter.
00:24:08
OK, I actually have a YouTube video titled Fall Planting
00:24:14
Onions, I think, and I will link to that one in the show notes
00:24:18
also. And you can see in that video, I
00:24:21
show the onions in January and you can see they have, you know,
00:24:25
long green tops on them, but they haven't been damaged.
00:24:29
They're, they're OK. So essentially you want to do
00:24:32
the same thing with your onions, your bold onions, as you do with
00:24:35
your garlic. You do want to mulch.
00:24:37
And again, that the mulch is going to be heavier the colder
00:24:40
your area is. And in some instances when they
00:24:44
come up in the spring, they, they may end up bolting
00:24:47
depending on what area of the country you're in or what zone
00:24:51
you are in. And that is OK.
00:24:52
They are still usable. But This is why I do both.
00:24:55
So I will plant the sets in the fall, and then I will plant from
00:24:59
seedlings in the spring. So I will start seedlings
00:25:03
indoors and I will transplant those out.
00:25:05
And that way I'm sort of, once again, covering all my bases to
00:25:07
make sure that I get what I need in terms of my onions.
00:25:13
OK, So what about some troubleshooting?
00:25:15
There are three easy ways that you can kind of, you know, cause
00:25:20
problems with any of these crops.
00:25:21
And the first one is planting too early because you're going
00:25:23
to get a lot of top growth that winter kills, and the
00:25:26
possibility of you damaging that bulb underneath is much higher.
00:25:30
The other way is to plant too late and you're going to get
00:25:33
poor rooting, which means that they may not survive the winter
00:25:37
because they have no way to take up any water or anything during
00:25:41
the winter time. They're just going to kind of
00:25:42
sit there and rot. The other thing is you can get
00:25:45
that frost heaving if it doesn't get a chance to root in at all.
00:25:48
As your soil goes through that freeze thaw cycle, they're more
00:25:52
likely to pop up out of the ground and be damaged.
00:25:54
And then the third way is that soggy soil.
00:25:57
None of these crops like having their feet wet.
00:25:59
So you know, make sure that it's well draining soil.
00:26:03
Try to plant when you know you're not getting a solid rain
00:26:07
going on in some areas. I know winter tends to be your
00:26:11
rainy season. So if you can get them in the
00:26:13
ground before that starts happening, that's your best
00:26:15
idea. Just use your timing cues and in
00:26:18
terms of, you know, the temperatures and, and when you
00:26:21
think your your frost or your ground is going to start to
00:26:23
freeze and use that as your guide as to when to get these
00:26:28
in. Again, mulch and winter care for
00:26:33
your onions is essentially the same as your garlic.
00:26:35
So when you're overwintering onions, you want to mulch to
00:26:38
help insulate these bulbs. It's also going to retain the
00:26:40
moisture. It's going to suppress the
00:26:42
weeds. The best mulch options kind of
00:26:45
depend on your climate and what materials you have available to
00:26:47
you. I always use straw.
00:26:49
We've also done shredded leaves. If you live somewhere where pine
00:26:53
trees are prevalent, pine needles are fine.
00:26:55
If you're in really cold zones, I definitely suggest the straw
00:26:58
and the shredded leaves. They tend to have the best
00:27:00
insulation. If you're in a warmer zone, you
00:27:03
may not need much mulch at all for any kind of cold protection,
00:27:07
mainly just for weed prevention. OK, So again, 3 to 4 inches,
00:27:12
just like with our garlic, if you are in a colder climate,
00:27:15
even more if you need to and you're going to have to pull
00:27:18
that back. And then, you know, if you're in
00:27:20
a zone like 7 through 9, two inches is probably plenty.
00:27:24
If you are in zones 3 through 6, your onion sets are going to
00:27:29
remain dormant during the winter and they're going to start
00:27:31
resuming growth very slowly in the early spring as the soil
00:27:36
starts to warm and then they're suddenly going to take off.
00:27:39
So if you can keep the soil lightly moist through the
00:27:41
spring, especially as the weather warms, then you're going
00:27:44
to be better off. If you're in zone 7 through 11,
00:27:48
your seedlings, your onion seedlings are going to continue
00:27:51
to grow over the winter and it's going to put on more growth as
00:27:56
the spring approaches. So again, water regularly, but
00:28:00
we don't want to over saturate the soil.
00:28:02
And then as far as feeding them, once that spring growth resumes,
00:28:08
then you're going to want to side dress just like with the
00:28:10
garlic, with a nitrogen rich fertilizer of some sort, blood
00:28:14
meal, composted manure, feather meal.
00:28:17
And that's going to promote that leafy growth.
00:28:20
You do want to stop feeding that nitrogen once those bulbs start
00:28:24
to swell. If you see bulbs starting to
00:28:26
heave up after it starts to thaw in a little bit in the in the
00:28:30
winter, toss some extra mulch on the bed, you know, in the
00:28:34
spring. Then you can decide if you want
00:28:35
to pull that mulch aside to warm up the soil or if you just want
00:28:39
to leave a thinner layer to keep the weeds down.
00:28:41
But you know, that's, that's the perfect way to to approach it.
00:28:48
OK so can you plant grocery store garlic?
00:28:53
Yes, but avoid it if it's if it's not organic for sure
00:28:58
because it likely has been treated to prevent that
00:29:00
sprouting. It can possibly carry diseases.
00:29:03
So if you are new to this game, please use certified seed or
00:29:06
garlic bulbs from a trusted grower.
00:29:09
If you've missed this fall window then plant in the early
00:29:13
spring, right? Consider pre chilling those
00:29:15
cloves, so about 6 to 8 weeks in the refrigerator to at least get
00:29:21
that differentiation of the bulbs.
00:29:24
You still might expect some smaller bulbs.
00:29:27
Mulch, mulch, mulch. Please 3 to 4 inches of straw or
00:29:30
shredded leaves. If you are in a really cold
00:29:32
region, then make sure that you are mulching heavier.
00:29:35
And at this point, once you get a good crop of garlic, then you
00:29:41
can hold those like your biggest and best healthiest bulbs from
00:29:46
the harvest to go ahead and plant again the next year.
00:29:50
If you haven't seen any diseases.
00:29:52
Now, can you grow your own sets, onion sets?
00:29:56
The answer is yes. Those onion sets are simply
00:30:00
onion seeds that were grown right into a little seedling and
00:30:04
they were allowed to start to form that little bulb and then
00:30:08
they were bent over and basically pinched off to prevent
00:30:13
them from continuing to grow. This is sort of forcing them
00:30:17
into a dormancy and making them essentially going to be a second
00:30:22
year onion when you plant them. So if you want to try doing your
00:30:27
own, you can save some of your spring seedlings if you grow
00:30:32
them from seed, plant half of them, allow the others to
00:30:35
continue to grow a little bit. Or you can plant them really,
00:30:38
really close together out in the garden if you want.
00:30:41
And then once they get to, you know, a nice little, I don't
00:30:45
know what size you would call that.
00:30:46
I mean like a Pearl onion, right?
00:30:48
Once they get to that size, pinch them over and get them to
00:30:52
stop growing, pull them and let them dry and then you have your
00:30:56
own sets to plant in the fall. I know it can be difficult to
00:30:59
find sets to plant. I will leave a link in the show
00:31:02
notes to where we always get ours and I've had great, great
00:31:06
luck with it. I just encourage you, you know,
00:31:08
garlic and onions both, it is sort of low effort because you
00:31:12
get to throw it in the ground and then just give it minimal
00:31:15
attention over the winter time and it's going to start bouncing
00:31:18
back up for you in the spring. It's like a no brainer.
00:31:21
Just make sure you're picking a sunny, well drained bed and
00:31:23
you're losing, you know, clean seed.
00:31:26
You're planting them at the appropriate depth and the
00:31:28
appropriate width away from each other and you're basically done
00:31:31
until spring, OK? Just make sure that you're
00:31:33
giving everybody a little mulch blanket too.
00:31:36
So don't forget just growsomethingpodcast.com/news to
00:31:41
get on my e-mail list. You never know what topic I'm
00:31:43
going to show up on Fridays in your inbox with, and all of the
00:31:48
links to all the different episodes that I referenced today
00:31:50
are all going to be in the show notes for you as well.
00:31:54
Until next time, my gardening friends, keep on cultivating
00:31:56
that dream garden, and we'll talk again soon.